


Olympus Can Wait

by bananannabeth



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-04
Updated: 2018-01-04
Packaged: 2019-02-28 02:20:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13261566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bananannabeth/pseuds/bananannabeth
Summary: The stress of rebuilding Olympus after the First War starts to get to Percy and Annabeth.





	Olympus Can Wait

 

She was hoping to make it in before he could catch up, but the boy was fast. He jumped in before the doors closed, and then the two of them were locked in a confined space, staring each other down.

 

“If you don’t want to be here, you shouldn’t have chased me into the elevator,” she said coldly, folding her arms over her chest.

 

Percy groaned. “Annabeth, that’s not what I meant.”

 

“Well that’s what it sounded like,” she snapped, lifting her chin and refusing to look at him. She watched the little lights on the elevator light up as they travelled higher and higher towards Olympus, although it seemed to be going much slower than usual.

 

“Don’t twist my words -” he began to protest, but she whirled around and pointed a finger at him, her expression terrifying enough to render him instantly mute.

 

“You said, and I quote, ‘This is stupid, Annabeth.’  _Stupid_!”

 

“Well -” 

 

“It’s not stupid to me!”

 

His expression flashed briefly to something close to hopeless, and then his gaze turned steely and he straightened his shoulders. “Fine. You know what?  _Fine._ If you want to work yourself to the brink of exhaustion for the sake of some lousy gods who aren’t even going to thank you for your effort -”

 

The elevator jerked to a sudden stop, sending both of them off balance. The lights flickered, off and on and off again, an emergency tone sounded, and then everything stilled. The lights returned, and Annabeth realised that she’d fallen right into Percy’s chest.

 

She pushed away, brushing herself off and glaring at him. “Great,” she muttered. “Now you’ve pissed them off.”

 

“What? How is this my fault?!”

 

“Don’t insult the gods, Percy, especially not when we’re in an elevator on our way to Olympus!”

 

A tone sounded over the intercom, and a female voice floated into the space. “Hello, there appears to be a small technical difficultly with your journey at the moment. We hope to have the problem resolved and you two moving forward again soon.”

 

Annabeth blinked at the speaker. “Was that -”

 

“Aphrodite,” Percy groaned. “Great.”

 

“What does she want?” 

 

Percy stared at her, confused. “Isn’t it obvious? We’re fighting.”

 

“So? She loves that type of stupid drama.”

 

“It’s not stupid to me,” Percy mumbled, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans.

 

Annabeth froze, moved by his use of her own words against her. 

 

She scrunched her face up and turned to face him, taking a deep breath. “You really hurt my feelings when you insult this project, Percy. It’s a huge honour and it means a lot to me…”

 

“I know, Annabeth, I know how much this means to you -”

 

“So why do you always pay it out, then?”

 

He glared at her. “Would you let me finish before butting in?”

 

With effort, she bit her tongue.

 

Percy continued, “I know how much this means to you, but I can’t just watch you run yourself into the ground trying to bend to the gods’ every whim. They’ve got eternity, Annabeth, you don’t need to sacrifice everything to get this done for them _right now_. You need to take time to look after yourself, to have fun and relax and… and recover.”

 

Annabeth’s eyes were watering. She tried desperately to blink away the tears, but it was useless. “I can’t stop to think about it, Percy. If I’m always busy I always have other stuff on my mind, and I don’t have to think about - about the fight and - and everyone we lost…”

 

In two quick strides he was there, wrapping his arms around her and holding her tight. He ran his hand through her hair and shushed her, whispering calm, sweet, nothings and reassuring her that it was going to be all right. “I’m just worried about you. I need to know that you’re taking care of yourself, because I love you, and I’d never forgive myself if I let you just work yourself away until you had a breakdown. And you know that’s what’s going to happen if you keep going like this.”

 

She nodded, sniffling into his shoulder. “You’re right.”

 

He pulled back slightly to peer down at her. “I’m sorry, can you say that again? A little louder, maybe?”

 

“You’re  _right_ ,” she repeated, punching him lightly in the arm. “Don’t make me say it again, Seaweed Brain.”

 

He chuckled and pulled her back in for a hug, kissing the crown of her head. Smoothly, the elevator started to move again.

 

“Well, I guess we solved that one,” Percy said.

 

The doors opened when they reached the top, revealing an ‘under construction’ Olympus. Before Percy could move, Annabeth reached out one arm, pressed the button for the ground floor, and snuggled back into Percy’s embrace.

 

“Let’s have a night off, tonight,” she suggested. “Burgers and movies?”

 

Percy grinned. “Burgers and movies sounds like Elysium to me.”

 

 


End file.
